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This post is long overdue! My apologies for not having posted so much lately.
On the weekend of October 20th, Sephora hosted its first annual beauty event at the Majestic House in Downtown LA. This event was every beauty and skincare lover’s dream. To say that I felt like a kid in candy store is an understatement. There’s a lot that I have to break down so before we dive in, I’m going to give you a pretty quick overview of what the event entailed: Imagine being at Sephora. Now imagine every single brand with its own interactive themed room plus free goodies, photo ops, makeovers and makeup classes from the most prestigious makeup artists.
Sephora stated in their press release that Sephoria, House of beauty, would be a “highly immersive two-day event fusing high-touch physical and digital experiences”. In other words, the event was Museum of Ice Cream meets makeup but to an extreme level.
On this two-day weekend event, there were two sessions per day. Tickets ranged from $99 to $449 with different tiers: bronze key house $99, Silver house key $249 and Gold house key $449.
Tickets for Sephoria were available for purchase starting July but I didn’t get my ticket until two days before the event. After all, I’m not a big fan of conventions. Have you ever heard of Tanacon?
Some conventions are overcrowded, only focused on influencers and couldn’t care less about the customers. The main “celebrities” of this customer-focused event were real A-list beauty and makeup artists including celebrities like Chrissy Tiegen, who just recently launched her new Becca collection. I saw my fair share of Youtubers walking around and none of them got special treatment whatsoever and a few of them were barely recognized. I love that Sephora did this. Everyone was incredibly friendly with no snobby LA attitude.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
First off, after you’re checked in, you have to go through the outdoor area of the event with interactive booths to get that perfect Instagram Boomerang and samples!!
La Mer had a giant walk-in jar where you could get a sample of their $325 soft cream. Only this product was available for samples. I was given 2 mini samples of the soft cream which I used every night for two weeks since the event. I’m sad to report that I’m back to using my regular moisturizer after struggling to squeeze second the tube to get out the last ounce of product.
inside…
Once you were finished touring this area, which was mostly perfume brands, you walked to the venue called the Majestic Downtown, which was just 400 feet away next door.
Prior entering the venue, there was a Sephoria-themed bike decorated as if you were going on an adventure in Wonderland (actually, the correct term here would be “Beautyland”).
I was going to post different videos from my phone to give you an overall idea of the venue layout but this video pretty much sums it up in less than one minute.
Every single room was a completely different experience that allowed you to get more personal with each of the brands carried by Sephora. For me, the winner was Tatcha. They really hit the nail on the head immersing you into their world of harmony and serenity with a gorgeous purple Japanese garden. The entrance line was a little long but every line in the venue went super quick.
Another thing I should mention is that the products displayed at the event were very limited. I was expecting to find every single product at Sephora. With the exception of 2 brands like Youth To The People and Glow Recipe, every brand’s room only had their newest holiday releases. Tatcha simply had their cleansers and masks available for sampling. Besides this, every brand was giving away free samples.
The photo ops were off the hook.
Ole Henriksen followed their orange brand color and had a giant basket filled with oranges and bananas. This room simulated a laundromat.
Urban Decay had slot machines for you to play with and win prizes.
The magic kept growing upstairs. At the two large tables at the top of the grand staircase, there were Sephora employees doing individual makeovers with the countless products laid out. Another two brands that stood out in this area were Benefit and Drybar. Both of these brands had their own exclusive room: Benefit representatives were applying eyebrow products; and Drybar hairstylist were doing free blowouts in a huge room.
Never in my life had I seen so many foundations lined up. The photos don’t do them any justice. Just WOW
The Beauty Blender room had me floored!! In this room, the brand was also doing color matching with their new foundation release; however, the main draw was the beauty blender wall. I mean….
Fresh had a refrigerator filled with rose petals and champagne.
And just when you thought that was it, there were more brands and more interactive rooms going on in the basement. Sephoria wasn’t playing! The basement area was called the Glitter Room. Brands were showcasing their newest holiday releases, which of course included glitter: Pat McGrath, Stila and Fenty Beauty were a few of the brands that made every glitter fanatic’s dream come to life. Smiley girls slathered in glitter welcomed you into this heaven. To amp up the atmosphere, there was a huge dance floor with a disco ball and DJs spinning jams! In order to get to the other side, you had to cross an elevated loft space, which was very reminiscent of minimal industrial style underground clubs ala Sex and The City.
Fenty Beauty, Rihanna’s brand, known for its blindingly shimmery highlighters, had its own room called the fairy bomb bar. Here, a giant compact mirror awaited you for unique photo ops and get loose with the confetti. 🎊🎊
Look at that lamp!
Bite Beauty was doing customized lipsticks for the night at a special price. In this section, there was a bar and more rooms for photo ops. It was seriously jaw-dropping! How can a place be so big??? Sephora, if you’re reading this, you did a terrific job.
More interactive rooms!
Esential water was one of the sponsors that night. They really spoiled us providing unlimited bottles and encouraging guests to take photos and tag them.
Upon exiting the event, you were given a covetable swag bag worth more than the ticket you purchased. These were real Sephora-sized products, no travel-sizes whatsoever. This is one of the few times where someone can say that you’re definitely getting your money’s worth!!
Conclusions
I looked up the place before going and I genuinely thought it would be very cramped and poorly organized. My apologies. The venue was impressively huge for being smack dab in the middle of Downtown LA.
I never felt jostled or jammed. Sephora’s management team did an amazing job at managing the flow of the lines and respecting the venue capacity. This is the reason why the event was divided into two sessions on each weekend day.
Everyone was super friendly. It was a very supportive environment where women complimented one another. #girlpower
An estimated 5,000 beauty-lovers attended this two-day event. It is very likely that given the debut success in Sephoria’s first year, another one will be in the making for next year.
From a marketing standpoint, Sephora succeeded in creating an emotional connection immersing their customers into each brand in such a remarkable way. It was also great that it was open to the public because many events of this caliber are only available to celebrities and influencers. I see this all the time on social media where beauty/clothing brands have release parties only accesible by VIP’s and contest winners.
Priscilla’s master class tips!
I was fortunate enough to be in Priscilla Ono’s masterclass. I can’t believe a week ago I was in my home watching her Dubai Masterclass with Rihanna and a week later I was face to face with her, witnessing first-hand her impressive makeup skills. I was pleasantly surprised at how amazing this night turned out to be. I had so much fun and I can honestly say that that $99 ticket was worth every single dime.
You can watch the full Youtube video here but you won’t be able to see any of the Q&A’s! It’s a bummer because the answers were so educational! But it’s not a problem because I made sure to take notes.
💅A good skincare routine is the base of everything. This is so true, especially nowadays with social media and the beauty routine trends, girls are becoming more aware of the importance of taking care of their skin. The brand Glossier cleverly picked up on this with the tagline, “Skin first, makeup second”.
💅Mix foundation with a face oil! This technique is something I would never have done in a million years. I did that with my makeup prior to going to Sephoria: I mixed the foundation with Korres face oil and the foundation magically thinned out, making for a smoother application than just pressing the foundation onto the skin. Priscilla corroborated this. This technique has truly been a game changer.
💅She always carries face wipes.
💅The most common mistake she sees is using too much powder. This is so true. Have you ever watched some beauty makeup gurus? They go extra hard on the powder to make sure nothing budges. I’ve never been a fan of this technique either. She sets the makeup with Fenty Beauty Invisimatte blotting powder.
💅Also she swears by face mists. I know she stated in other interviews that she and Riri love Tatcha. In the video, she also mentioned how she used tatcha sheet masks to prep the skin.
Thank you for reading! I hope this post was convincing enough for you to join Sephoria 2019!! Update: tickets for Sephoria 2019 are available now here!
It will be on the first week of September at a different venue! Can’t wait to relive it all over again!
What are your favorite brands at Sephora?
